The executive producer and show runner for "The Simpsons" Al Jean announced that after 26 seasons Homer and Marge will legally separate during season 27. The story has been reported that Homer deals with insomnia and falls in love with his pharmacist. Fans all over Twitter were in an uproar over this. For a lot of us (this writer included) Homer and Marge are the couple we grew up watching and loved. No matter how idiotic Homer got, Marge loved him. When Homer went too far and got selfish (like in the movie), Homer realized he was wrong and found a way to make up for it. And no matter how neurotic or Marge got, Homer still loved his wife. Seeing the two breakup is almost as bad as seeing two people you knew growing up splitting up.
Even though they are fictional characters, they were part of our lives. Even though Bart, Lisa, and Maggie never aged, we watched them grow. Seeing the couple split up would be tragic. Here is the good news, Al Jean has been tweeting that people should just calm down and that just because the couple is separating doesn't mean that it's forever. Not only has he said that, he has seemed to have a blast tweeting at people during all of this. Al Jean tweeted things like "#EverySimpsonsEver I DIDN'T SAY Homer and Marge are breaking up I said they are BIGGER THAN JESUS." and "What I said is correct/was completely misinterpreted as you will see 9/27 How accurate are they on important things?”
So is the couple done for good? Probably not. Let's be honest, after twenty-seven years of twenty plus episode seasons and a movie, things have to be shaken up a bit. South Park said it best when they did an episode about how the Simpsons seem to have done everything (General Disarray saying "SIMPSONS DID IT" over and over to Butters...Professor Chaos). So at some point the writers, creators, and the producers are going to have to do some things that may or may no be the most popular thing to fans.
But after so many years of staying relevant and the show never compromising and staying true to what they are, you have to give them the benefit of a doubt. The show hasn't had to resort to silly gimmicks or even change their style or animation. The core characters remain the same even when they hit on topics that are touchy. There was an episode where Homer thought Bart was gay and was insanely insensitive towards him and other gay people. By the end of the episode he realized he was wrong and told Bart he'd love him regardless. This episode came out years before gay culture was popular among shows and was considered taboo.
All that said, let's all just watch the episode and enjoy the show and then enjoy the inevitable episode Homer and Marge renew their vows and fall back in love again. OH, Bart is also killed by Sideshow Bob in their Halloween episode.
